How Can There Be "Right Wing Extremists" If the Right Believes in Individual Liberty and Freedom, OR Why the Left-Center-Right Paradigm Is a Myth

In order for its weltanschauung to make any sense at all to its adherents, as well as to justify its actions in a broader context, the Institutional Left (and I already have a problem with that monicker considering the subject of this essay, but more on that later) is constantly propagandizing in every forum and classroom the concept of "multiple perspectives." In essence, as the Buffalo Springfield crooned 50 years ago "nobody's right if everybody's wrong." It's a neat pseudo-intellectual parlor trick--- and it's totally disingenuous.

Because we are human beings, we are all prone to the usual foibles, failings, sins and idiosyncrasies that have plagued us since time immemorial. But that doesn't mean that the concepts of good and evil don't exist. Concomitantly, the world may not be strictly black and white, but the shades of light and dark are both distinct and starkly contrasted. And this is why the Left has to proclaim a moral equivalency between the alleged extremists on our side and on theirs, that is, if they ever admit to having any. They won't, because they can't. And that is because if they did the real historical record will show a trail of blood, destruction and human misery so vast as to beggar the imagination. This is where having the media, academia and culture in your pocket comes in handy. Somehow, over the past 50 years, they have managed to brainwash the entire nation into believing that the Democrats all switched parties after the Civil Rights Act of 1965, transferring the original sin of slavery and Jim Crow onto Republicans and Conservatives. Therefore, it stands to reason that the Ku Klux Klan is part and parcel of the Right, along with racism, bigotry, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia and all the rest of it, ad nauseum.

If you go a bit further back in time, the prewar butchery of Josef Stalin was already into the millions, but was conveniently covered up and/or excused by the Left (for obvious reasons). But with the coming of Hitler, by virtue of the fact that he was the mortal nemesis of good ol' Uncle Joe, Hitler and the Nazis became identified with "the Right," both the European and American Leftist definitions of that term, and it has stuck to this day, never you mind about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact or the fact that Nazi is an acronym for "National Socialist."

The problems with America are the result of the human failings and frailty of flawed individuals. Yet, despite all of it, very flawed people still managed to build what I feel is the greatest society and system of government in all of human history. On the other hand, the problems with Socialism, Statism, Progressivism, call it what you will are inherent in the ideology itself. That's why you hear the moronic, egomaniacal proclamation every generation or so of "we are the ones we've been waiting for!" Communism failed because the leaders were not worthy enough. Or the masses (see any mass grave in Irkutsk, Pyongyang or Havana for clarification).

And so I circle back to this notion of political "extremists" particularly on the right. So, in reality, what does "the right" stand for? Individual liberty, personal responsibility, a belief in the free market and the rule of a just and stable law with the absolute minimum amount of government to ensure the proper functioning of the civil society,

Suffice it to say that the Left rejects this. Nameless millions of victims in the killing fields, gas chambers and gulags all over the world bear witness to the notion of the perfectibility of man and paradise on earth. This is why in Charlottesville, the so-called "alt-right" along with Neo-Nazis, the KKK and white supremacists are pinned on us, because, in fact, given the history, they are 100% part and parcel of the other side.

So, if this is the case how can there be extremists on both sides? It makes no sense. There is no moral equivalency between the two sides. THERE IS NO LEFT/RIGHT PARADIGM. There are only those who believe in freedom and liberty and those who do not; or more precisely, those who are willing to take advantage of the good nature and gullibility of all too many to seize control and to tear down America as founded, Judeo-Christianity, the Scottish Enlightenment, free market capitalism and every other aspect of real human progress the aforementioned have fostered over the past 2,000 years of history.

It is way past time we took back the language and set the record straight and reject this blood-libeling. Make them face up to their history.... Before they rewrite ours.

8
There is no such thing as Alt -Right, I figured this out in high school despite the teachers trying to pound this thought into me.

Posted by: Skip at August 22, 2017 04:35 PM (pPKG5)

9
So Trump is blind now....he looked at the sun....All the reporters are saying "I knew was stupid, but not that stupid".... (The Weather Channel)

Posted by: Colin at August 22, 2017 04:35 PM (rzEAq)

10
Which is why we must always call ANTIFA "Mainstream Democrat Party Members". They are nothing less than that.
They represent the views of the Democrat Party.
Anytime they commit a crime, beat people, yell people down, storm buildings, property damage label it as Mainstream Democrat Party Member does X crime.
Don't use ANTIFA attach the Party to them.
Make them own that which is their own.

The progressives have distorted the freedom of religion to such an extent that actors far away from the power of Congress working for the state need to guard lest they give an "endorsement of religion". The tests to ensure a "freedom FROM religion" is strenuous.

Libs aren't going to give up our tax money so easily. They want to create lib recruitment centers in public universities--and universities where over 50% of the funds come from the federal government--now acting as the only lender.

They're penurious with due process. And no matter how much "rights of conscience" as a bedrock of American civil liberties, entails a freedom FROM religion and makes it implicit in the free exercise, it is zealously guarded by our courts as a "founding principle"--and yet due process and free speech are NO LESS SO!

Yet, they can strain at the gnat of the "Lemon principle" and swallow the camel of suspending due process and free speech guarantees at institutions that are paid mostly with taxpayer money.

The standard seems to be what they can control themselves with hearing. If they piss their pants too much, well nobody wants to walk around in all that urine so a REASONABLE measure is to not let you say the things that makes the maladjusted psychos piss themselves. We are constantly being asked to be REASONABLE by the unreasoning.

33
The have, for the last 30 years, been forcing us to choose sides...

Because if we don't, they choose our side for us.

Posted by: Don Q. at August 22, 2017 04:42 PM (NgKpN)

34
9 So Trump is blind now....he looked at the sun....All the reporters are saying "I knew was stupid, but not that stupid".... (The Weather Channel)
Posted by: Colin at August 22, 2017 04:35 PM (rzEAq)

I prefer watching The Time Channel. "You give us 20 minutes, we'll give you a third of an hour."

Posted by: any dimocrat in a storm at August 22, 2017 04:42 PM (0OmEj)

36With my background and education I can't help but look at our country today but through a mental health filter. Never before in our history have we had such a huge percentage of the population taking anti-depressants, never before such an 'epidemic' of autism/Asperger Syndrome youth entering college, never before an opioid crisis of such proportions killing so many every day.

We're in the middle of a devolution revolution(tm) and people calling for 'smaller limited' government aren't the lightning rod driving these people into their fear and dementia.

37
I see over at WZ that Pelosi is fundraising on Heather Heyer's corpse, while the body is still warm. Classy!
Posted by: flounder, rebel, vulgarian, deplorable, winner at August 22, 2017 04:41 PM (tbOMB)

39
30 I see over at WZ that Pelosi is fundraising on Heather Heyer's corpse, while the body is still warm. Classy!
Posted by: flounder, rebel, vulgarian, deplorable, winner at August 22, 2017 04:41 PM (tbOMB)

Dinesh covered the same ground in Hillary's America and I thought did a great job, great production values. Too bad not enough people will see it, especially millennials. In a sane world it would be shown on campuses every year and available for streaming at all the places.

45
30 I see over at WZ that Pelosi is fundraising on Heather Heyer's corpse, while the body is still warm. Classy!
Posted by: flounder, rebel, vulgarian, deplorable, winner at August 22, 2017 04:41 PM (tbOMB)

Without other people's money, the left will always die.

Posted by: Draki at August 22, 2017 04:44 PM (Y0byY)

46
The good news is that the left is fighting capitalism and Christianity, the two most powerful opponents they could have chosen.
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at August 22, 2017 04:37 PM (7ZVPa)

Good point, capitalism is hard to beat and so are loving Christians. Socialism has never won the long run.
Posted by: Draki at August 22, 2017 04:39 PM (Y0byY)

The fight is not new, and they have successfully eroded the influence of both. The relentless march favors their eventual success, because they control the media, control the education system, and increasingly control the levers of power, real power, in the shadows of the permanent government class.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 22, 2017 04:44 PM (TOk1P)

47
Bacon flavored Ritz crackers make the collapse of civilization a little easier to bear.

Posted by: Weasel at August 22, 2017 04:45 PM (Sfs6o)

48
The degradation of our cultural morality or if you prefer the acceptance of relative morality I believe is our downfall. Man has always defaulted to immorality but it was on the down low and at least the perception was that it was not to be tolerated in the open. Now there is absolutely no shame associated with any act or position no matter how depraved.

Socialism enables this mindset. It punishes the brave and rewards the bold.

Probably woke up groggy, not knowing what day it was, and commented on an old post.

Posted by: irright at August 22, 2017 04:45 PM (pMGkg)

51
I'm sure many of you are familiar the concept that political opinion is best placed on an x, y axis cartesian graph rather than on a single axis continuum where the x axis is economic liberty between a completely planned economy at one extreme and complete laissez faire at the other while the y axis is social liberty from complete cotrol to anything goes. Conservatism is seen as heavy on x axis economic liberty but but light on the y axis social liberty.

There becomes a point where you can Nice yourself to death.... we are just about there...

Posted by: Don Q. at August 22, 2017 04:45 PM (NgKpN)

53
"On our first date, I treated her to the finest ice cream Baskin-Robbins had to offer, our dinner table doubling as the curb. I kissed her, and it tasted like chocolate."
He didn't ask for permission and get a clear verbal response?
That's "rape" or at least "campus rape". I think the Obamas' first kiss plaque in Chicago is clearly offensive and must be destroyed or at least removed.

Posted by: Downcast at August 22, 2017 04:46 PM (cLtX+)

54
Outgoing EU ambassador: Israel has much to learn from us in war on terror

61
The fight is not new, and they have successfully eroded the influence of both. The relentless march favors their eventual success, because they control the media, control the education system, and increasingly control the levers of power, real power, in the shadows of the permanent government class.
Posted by: BurtTC at August 22, 2017 04:44 PM (TOk1P)

If that's the case, then why have China and Russia given up on full communism? The socialists may win for a bit, but it never lasts.

Posted by: Draki at August 22, 2017 04:48 PM (Y0byY)

62
Brothers and Sisters of the Resistance! Join us in our righteous struggle to ban bad holiday singing!

Posted by: AntiFaLaLa at August 22, 2017 04:48 PM (EJZ4y)

63
I hope the AZ Morons have their riot gear on and have polished their bullets

Milo runs circles around reporters who might think they are pretty smart. That's why they probably don't want to interview him. In his YouTube video (from CSPAN) he lists the top 5 people who are/were making a difference. Of course the number one is Trump, Sarah Palin, who he loves....etc.

69
To pointlessly correct a comment from a few days ago, the "Nazi" part comes not from the "socialist" part of the party's name, but the "national" part - even though typically the German is mashed-together mess of both words (Nazionalsozialistiche).

72
The fight is not new, and they have successfully eroded the influence of both. The relentless march favors their eventual success, because they control the media, control the education system, and increasingly control the levers of power, real power, in the shadows of the permanent government class.
Posted by: BurtTC at August 22, 2017 04:44 PM (TOk1P)

If that's the case, then why have China and Russia given up on full communism? The socialists may win for a bit, but it never lasts.
Posted by: Draki at August 22, 2017 04:48 PM (Y0byY)

I don't know what that has to do with anything. Russia and China are not the point. It's what is happening in Western Civilization. The slow relentless erosion of Western values, starting with those twin towers. Europe has essentially abandoned both, and we're barely hanging on them here.

Electoral victory has little to do with any of this.

Venezuela may serve as a better model for our future than the Rooskies and Chicoms.

74
>>> With my background and education I can't help but look at our country today but through a mental health filter. Never before in our history have we had such a huge percentage of the population taking anti-depressants, never before such an 'epidemic' of autism/Asperger Syndrome youth entering college, never before an opioid crisis of such proportions killing so many every day. We're in the middle of a devolution revolution(tm) and people calling for 'smaller limited' government aren't the lightning rod driving these people into their fear and dementia.
Posted by: Slippery Slope Salesman at August 22, 2017 04:42 PM (EgwCt)

Can some of this be blamed on the politicization of the DSM? Declassifying some disorders that should not have been, so the people with them do not have hurt feels.

77
I consider myself a libertarian. What is a libertarian? A person who believes in individual liberty and freedom.

For the most part, libertarians and conservatives overlap. There are a few possible points of conflict, though... for example, no intellectually honest libertarian would be in favor of government banning recreational drugs, while some conservatives might be in favor of it. And some libertarians believe that an unborn baby isn't a person, so the mother should have the right to an abortion (it's her body, her rights) while other libertarians believe that an unborn baby is a person who has a right not to be murdered; so abortion is a wedge issue that fractures libertarians.

From the libertarian point of view, the left/right thing is overly simplified, and we use instead the "Nolan Chart" to map out politics. It's two-dimensional: there's a right/left axis, and a "authoritarian"/"libertarian" axis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nolan_Chart

We libertarians have not done a good job of selling our brand. We are trying to sell liberty... and failing.

One reason is that libertarians are split into numerous factions. I am a "minarchist", which means I believe that we need a small government to do the things the people cannot do for themselves. The Constitution of the United States spells out a near-perfect recipe for a minarchist government; it's too bad we aren't following it more closely.

Other libertarians believe that we don't need any kind of government at all, which seems like an amazing fantasy to me. They are often called "anarcho-capitalists" and they believe the free market can solve all problems. They think we don't need courts because rational people will voluntarily submit to arbitration, which to me is bizarrely naive (some people are not rational). They think that insurance companies will buy fighter jets and tanks and sell "national defense" insurance, which to me is bizarrely naive (how do you solve the "free rider problem" and let the enemy invade the people who didn't buy the national defense insurance?).

I'm quite sure that some of these "alt-right" protesters would love to use the power of government to hammer their enemies. They aren't true fans of liberty.

In fact IMHO that's the biggest problem with libertarianism... most people aren't comfortable letting other people be as free as they would enjoy being. The liberals want to take away the free speech rights of Milo. Some right-wingers want government to stomp on the druggies. I honestly want government to do very little, and take very little in taxes, and employ very few. But I feel pretty isolated.

Posted by: mr_jack at August 22, 2017 04:52 PM (M59SC)

78
Milo runs circles around reporters who might think they are pretty smart. That's why they probably don't want to interview him. In his YouTube video (from CSPAN) he lists the top 5 people who are/were making a difference. Of course the number one is Trump, Sarah Palin, who he loves....etc.
Posted by: Colin at August 22, 2017 04:50 PM (rzEAq)

Don't know if I'd put Palin in there. She jumped too fast over to Trump for my tastes in the primary. I'm open to how and I wouldn't say her NYT lawsuit is enough.

80
It's probably about 150 degrees in PHX, so I doubt they will be feeling too jiggy down there tonight.

Posted by: Roland THTG at August 22, 2017 04:53 PM (QM5S2)

8151 I'm sure many of you are familiar the concept that political opinion is best placed on an x, y axis cartesian graph rather than on a single axis continuum where the x axis is economic liberty between a completely planned economy at one extreme and complete laissez faire at the other while the y axis is social liberty from complete cotrol to anything goes. Conservatism is seen as heavy on x axis economic liberty but but light on the y axis social liberty.
Posted by: I'm Anonosaurus Wrecks and I approved this message at August 22, 2017 04:45 PM (Nwg0u)

I am familiar with it, and the Big L Libertarians love it, and it is their form of virtue signaling.

The trouble with it is that "Liberty!" depends upon those stodgy old conservative values of which they are not so keen. Self-government means self-reliance, and "Anything Goes" culturally means the end of self-reliance, as far as I can see.

83
36
With my background and education I can't help but look at our country today but through a mental health filter. Never before in our history have we had such a huge percentage of the population taking anti-depressants, never before such an 'epidemic' of autism/Asperger Syndrome youth entering college, never before an opioid crisis of such proportions killing so many every day.

84
It hasn't helped that in the late 60s the radical "New Left" in taking control of the Democrats took for themselves the label "liberal" which until then had been the name of their main enemies. By donning the skin-suit of the liberals they had displaced they got to both hide their true selves and remove a term from being used by those who opposed them.

Making an idea only expressible by using a phrase (like classical liberal) instead of a simple word makes that idea harder to talk about. Their hijacking also eventually rendered many texts on politics written before then muddled to those reading them later on.

This skin-suit started to fray when Rush started calling them out and using the term "liberal" to describe the far left people who hid behind it. Actions will eventually trump a old definition and redefine it. It has however made the language poorer and that is a win for the totalitarians.

Posted by: geoffb5 at August 22, 2017 04:54 PM (zOpu5)

85
I don't know what that has to do with anything. Russia and China are not the point. It's what is happening in Western Civilization. The slow relentless erosion of Western values, starting with those twin towers. Europe has essentially abandoned both, and we're barely hanging on them here.

Electoral victory has little to do with any of this.

Venezuela may serve as a better model for our future than the Rooskies and Chicoms.
Posted by: BurtTC at August 22, 2017 04:51 PM (TOk1P)

Even if they win in America. Socialism will fall again and hopefully a free market will arise. If socialism wins, I'll be a card player, just like most ppl will do, and make sure my family does well even in a stupid world.

Posted by: Draki at August 22, 2017 04:54 PM (Y0byY)

86
I know I'm not the first person to ask this, but if the Dems and Repubs "switched" in 1965 why do the Dems still consider Franklin Roosevelt to be one of their heroes?

Posted by: Aunt Luna at August 22, 2017 04:54 PM (Zd2ZF)

87
80 It's probably about 150 degrees in PHX, so I doubt they will be feeling too jiggy down there tonight.
Posted by: Roland THTG at August 22, 2017 04:53 PM (QM5S2)

88
Somehow, over the past 50 years, they have managed to brainwash the entire nation into believing that the Democrats all switched parties after the Civil Rights Act of 1965, transferring the original sin of slavery and Jim Crow onto Republicans and Conservatives.
---
I really doubt that it is widespread. I doubt my daughter and her friends have even heard about it. I doubt a good number of people at my church have heard that either.

And then you have the ever increasing Brawndo crowd of lofos.

The problem is is that the "Southern Strategy Switch" is accepted cannon where it matters most, in the discussion between political opponents. Where it would actually be discussed, the people on one side have a ready-made dodge to be pulled off the shelf and used whenever they want to continue their moral superiority.

It really doesn't matter how many holes are in it. Liberalism is about wearing flattering labels. If it acquits your worldview, they'll press it as long as they're going to expend words in your direction. I've disproved it a hundred times with dozens of new angles, I get yawns on the other side.

They've got the dodge of "nuance" that they use to explain their unprincipled vacillations, and yet they will cite "nuance" with one breath and then indicate that if you believe that anybody protesting with the Nazis didn't have to be Nazis themselves and so therefore full blame for the violence of the brownshirts fell on them--and thus every bit of blame for Charlottesville didn't fall on them, then you couldn't be but "defending Nazis", there were just no degrees, you either defended Nazis or you capitulated to whatever narrative the left promoted. There's no shades of Nazis, there are no shades of standing with Nazis, and there are no shades of theorizing that there might be such shades.

You either vindicated the Auntie Fascists--who were "mostly peaceful" in other places before Charlottesville--or you were a Nazi sympathizer. The zero-tolerance crowd has spoken, there is no room for nuance where they say there is no room for nuance.

The new Jacobins are about always having some purell so they can tell themselves that their hands are washed. They are extremely uninterested in hearing any point you have to make, and all the things that you say that "attack" them.

Posted by: Axeman at August 22, 2017 04:54 PM (2mC6G)

89
We used to have safe spaces, government sponsored safe spaces, where people would feel free from being triggered.

We called them asylums.

I blame Jimmy Carter for shutting them down, and releasing all of these folks into the general, voting population.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at August 22, 2017 04:54 PM (7ZVPa)

90
I hope the AZ Morons have their riot gear on and have polished their bullets

95
>>> It's probably about 150 degrees in PHX, so I doubt they will be feeling too jiggy down there tonight.Posted by: Roland THTG at August 22, 2017 04:53 PM (QM5S2)

But on the plus side, people can bake cookies on the sidewalk while they either wait to get in to Trumps's rally, or while they wait to bust the heads of those that do!

Posted by: LizLem at August 22, 2017 04:56 PM (hvf9s)

96
I know I'm not the first person to ask this, but if the Dems and Repubs "switched" in 1965 why do the Dems still consider Franklin Roosevelt to be one of their heroes?
Posted by: Aunt Luna at August 22, 2017 04:54 PM (Zd2ZF)

98
As Reagan said in "A Time for Choosing", only socialists/communists/progressives use the term "the masses" because they see masses of people as a herd to be managed (and culled as necessary) whereas conservatives and classical liberals see individual citizens with God-given rights.

Any time you hear someone refer to "the masses", you already know their plans for your future.

Posted by: OCBill at August 22, 2017 04:56 PM (df+Zi)

99
This left-right hate is indeed entirely driven by the left.
It is designed to squelch speech.

It's working.

Posted by: OneEyedJack at August 22, 2017 04:57 PM (z79tQ)

100
98
Any time you hear someone refer to "the masses", you already know their plans for your future.
Posted by: OCBill at August 22, 2017 04:56 PM (df+Zi)

103
Way back when I was high school a teacher of either history or civics (they used to teach that!) said he preferred to think of the left/right political spectrum as a horseshoe shape instead of a line. The true believers of the left and right were actually very close in thought and deed. The majority of people were clustered up in the bend. This was in the late 1960's - which feels about as distant as the Bronze Age.

But riots are up close and personal. Point of aim = point of impact, more or less. Close enough.

But I doubt gunplay will be part of any festivities - obviously I hope not.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 22, 2017 04:58 PM (mBYZv)

106
It seems as if you're trying to make sense of the actions of a large group of people who are not only acting under a mass hysteria, but are highly delusional and, IMHO, suffer from various mental illnesses and personality disorders.

So really... stop trying to make sense of it all.

They're effed up in the head.

/I'm going to join WeirdDave in the dark room with the bucket. It's quiet in there.

109Can some of this be blamed on the politicization of the DSM? Declassifying some disorders that should not have been, so the people with them do not have hurt feels.

Posted by: LizLem at August 22, 2017 04:51 PM (hvf9s)

Absolutely correct. I expect the trend to continue.

Because hurt feelings among those so listed in the DSM are (german word for) 'above all else'. It's an extremely dangerous precedent. When pedophiles and psychotics achieve the ultimate victory of being de-listed there won't be anything worth saving.

113
102 Never before in our history have we had such a huge percentage of the population taking anti-depressants

Given what the Left has done to us, can you blame us? I am one of those takers, and on darker days I have contemplated ending it all. But I have decided to stick it out just to fight the Left further.
Posted by: Curmudgeon at August 22, 2017 04:57 PM (ujg0T)

It certainly doesn't help, but I was down that rabbit hole long before any of the recent shenanigans.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 22, 2017 05:00 PM (0mRoj)

114
>>> I know I'm not the first person to ask this, but if the Dems and Repubs "switched" in 1965 why do the Dems still consider Franklin Roosevelt to be one of their heroes? Posted by: Aunt Luna at August 22, 2017 04:54 PM (Zd2ZF)

Similar thought. Why Japanese Americans still loyally voted Democrat after WW2, after their relatives were thrown in internment camps, is a mystery I will never be able to solve for you.

1) While our politicians may be less than optimal in implementing policies we want and are generally cowards who won't stand up and do the right thing, the left is orders of magnitude worse and people have been rejecting them in records numbers.

In the 8 years Obama was in office, the left has lost over 1000 political offices at the state and federal level and they show no signs of turning that around anytime soon. I'd rather be in the position of fine tuning the people who represent us than being on the side that is has fallen and can't get up.

Posted by: JackStraw at August 22, 2017 05:00 PM (/tuJf)

116
A one dimensional descriptions (left-right) are conveniently short labels, but are less useful and accurate than two-dimensional categorizations (Pournelle and Nolan charts). William Briggs discussion of the two charts is worthwhile.

Posted by: drdrwilliams at August 22, 2017 05:00 PM (JplEF)

117
Those films of Afrika Corps tankers cooking eggs on the hulls of their tanks were faked (fake Nachrichten!). They used torches underneath.

Not to say Libya and Tunisia don't get a bit warm in the summer time.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 22, 2017 05:01 PM (mBYZv)

118
110 107 >>>35 but but but abortion/gayrights/diversity...ect ect ect.

We can't be certain that it's a turd until it's actually passed through the sphincter into the bowl.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 22, 2017 05:01 PM (0mRoj)

119
114
Similar thought. Why Japanese Americans still loyally voted Democrat after WW2, after their relatives were thrown in internment camps, is a mystery I will never be able to solve for you.
Posted by: LizLem at August 22, 2017 05:00 PM (hvf9s)

120
Good point, capitalism is hard to beat and so are loving Christians. Socialism has never won the long run.
Posted by: Draki at August 22, 2017 04:39 PM (Y0byY)

I'm sure the millions killed during the 20th century in socialist countries don't give a fuck about "the long run"

I'm equally sure that some of their last thoughts were regrets on not having fought earlier if the result is a bullet in the head either way.

Posted by: OneEyedJack at August 22, 2017 05:02 PM (z79tQ)

121
If we can't use the terms 'left' and 'right' to describe the divisions in modern politics what do we call the two sides? Good and evil? Ones and zeros? Antifa and profa? Them and us? Those guys! Not us!

125
"never before an opioid crisis of such proportions killing so many every day"

I read the preliminary report from Trump's opioid commission.

Anyone hoping for anything other than Yet Moar Big Government is going to be sadly disappointed. The commission is recommending a whole bunch of fresh intrusive rules, more care disbursement at public expense, and new pecksniffs and enforcers and fee collectors inserted everywhere. In other words, the same shit we've already been doing, for many decades, that hasn't worked, will be doubled down upon.

Here's a gem.

"This is an epidemic that all Americans face because here is the grim reality: Americans consume more opioids than any other country in the world."

Horse puckey. I don't face this epidemic. Because I don't partake in it. And won't. The table beside me could be piled high with stacks of smack, fentanyl, and OxyContin, and I would have zero interest or intent in consuming any of it.

The vast majority of Americans dying from opioid overdoses are stupid self-indulgent junkie assholes. Just as with the numerous Americans who dig their own graves with their teeth from too much junk food. My sympathies are quite limited.

129
121 If we can't use the terms 'left' and 'right' to describe the divisions in modern politics what do we call the two sides? Good and evil? Ones and zeros? Antifa and profa? Them and us? Those guys! Not us!

Posted by: Nosbarker Kendrickson at August 22, 2017 05:02 PM (m9X4Y)

I suppose it is the easiest to do. But then we have to reject the word "extremist" because as is the graviment of my discourse, we are not extremists and the Left today is entirely that.

Over at Gateway Pundit-- Democrats sending donation letters that look like collection letters and have the words "final notice" stamped on them.

Oh yeah, acting like a collection agency is totes going to have Mr/Mrs/ Other who is just getting by every month send YOU something.

Posted by: shibumi at August 22, 2017 05:04 PM (aT+Bx)

132
This does bring to mind a poll being reported the last couple of days to the effect that 10% of the American public are Nazi. Turns out that the questions were whether certain beliefs or attitudes were "acceptable". I assume many people would have interpreted acceptable, as I would have, as should not be subject to criminal or other government sanction, not as I'd be happy if my children believed this. So, for example, if I were asked if it is acceptable to believe that nobody should be forced to sell his house to blacks, I would answer it is acceptable. Therefore, I'm a Nazi.

Further, I think that this poll was intentionally ambiguous in order to exaggerate the Nazi threat and justify AntiFa.

Those of us a certain age remember when the constant refrain of the left was that you can't legislate morality. Now they are legislatig morality like a motherfvcker.

133
The left likes creating false associations in people's minds, which is very noticeable in movies (ex. Edward Scissorhands "religious people = bad"). And they like to prevent people from detecting real associations (ex. when they omit names in certain news stories).

If this is what it's like with Bannon back on board, frankly, I'm glad he's out of the WH.

Its a combination of World Daily News and CNN. Screaming headlines delivering terrifying news that Ivanka and Jared are singlehandedly going to dictate immigration and tax policy. McMaster is going to get us into six wars , he wanted 80,000 troops sent to Afghanistan, all the West Wing Democrats are going to demand to keep DACA, on and on.

It's unreadable. I have never seen it like this.

Posted by: Jen the original at August 22, 2017 05:05 PM (WFC0e)

135
Well, left and right are apt descriptions but the problem, as noted, is that they are not used in accordance with their meaning. Seems some do not think words have meaning.

Free vs whatever is the way to go.

Posted by: yankeefifth at August 22, 2017 05:05 PM (0wem/)

136
The Left side of the spectrum plays the long game and have no respect for the rules. The Right side of the spectrum is reactive and plays by the conventional rules.

Which side do you think has the upper hand? Of course the Left are like the necromongers . They destroy everything they conquer and have to start over.

138
Similar thought. Why Japanese Americans still loyally voted Democrat after WW2, after their relatives were thrown in internment camps, is a mystery I will never be able to solve for you.
Posted by: LizLem at August 22, 2017 05:00 PM (hvf9s)
-------

Why do so many Catholics vote Democrat? Why do so many Jews vote Democrat?

I really don't think most people take the time to really think about the side they support, to do research and ask themselves what is right and what is wrong and why. This really hit home for me after the 2012 election when, after everything awful he had done, Obama was reelected.

Great piece, JJ.

Posted by: bluebell at August 22, 2017 05:06 PM (UoSKV)

139
"The good news is that the left is fighting capitalism and Christianity, the two most powerful opponents they could have chosen."

Thanks for the laugh says the Leftist Pope.

Posted by: john doesky at August 22, 2017 05:06 PM (ls21y)

140
>very flawed people still managed to build what I feel is the greatest society and system of government in all of human history

Was it Churchill who said something about democracy being the worst form of gov't... except all the others that have been tried?

Posted by: GWB at August 22, 2017 05:06 PM (k/WLo)

141
As Trump was talking last night, I was struck by a thought I could not shake:

Presidents of the United States have had some godawful hair styles down through our history.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 22, 2017 05:06 PM (TOk1P)

142
140
Was it Churchill who said something about democracy being the worst form of gov't... except all the others that have been tried?
Posted by: GWB at August 22, 2017 05:06 PM (k/WLo)

151
know I'm not the first person to ask this, but if the Dems and Repubs "switched" in 1965 why do the Dems still consider Franklin Roosevelt to be one of their heroes?
Posted by: Aunt Luna at August 22, 2017 04:54 PM (Zd2ZF)

The Democrats think they get away with that "switch' bullshit because Strom Thurmond and because of Nixon's "Southern Strategy." What they don't mention is that most Segregationists stayed in the Democrat Party til their dying day--the were, after all, New Deal Democrats --and the the fact that by 1966 or so, Segregation was dead as a political issue. It was settled. So it's not like the GOP became the "Party of Segregation."

Posted by: JoeF. at August 22, 2017 05:08 PM (7uYFy)

152
Why do so many Catholics vote Democrat? Why do so many Jews vote Democrat?--

The prevailing wisdom re: Jews is that they consider themselves a minority, and do not feel that Republicans support minorities.

RE: Catholics, my guess would be that many Catholics think that Democrats help minorities, and they feel that by supporting Democrats, they are helping those less fortunate as well.

/R's need someone new doing their PR. They need to call Trump Inc. for ideas.

Posted by: shibumi at August 22, 2017 05:09 PM (aT+Bx)

153Somehow, over the past 50 years, they have managed to brainwash the entire nation into believing that the Democrats all switched parties after the Civil Rights Act of 1965,

Voting for the 1965 Civil Rights Act

Democrats
221 yeas
61 nays
78%

Republican

112 yeas

24 nays

82%

So the argument goes that racist were so pissed off about democrats voting for the Civil Rights Act that they switched to the party that voted for it in a higher percentage

158Screaming headlines delivering terrifying news that Ivanka and Jared are singlehandedly going to dictate immigration and tax policy. McMaster is going to get us into six wars , he wanted 80,000 troops sent to Afghanistan, all the West Wing Democrats are going to demand to keep DACA, on and on.

160
The categories are Stalinist.
A "fascist" is anyone who resists the total state.
Since the Stalinist state is held to be at the furthest left (most progressive) point, all who resist are on the "right."
The more you resist, the more "right-wing" you are.

163
Damned Commies are like zombies, you bury them and they just rise up out of the grave. They are never happier than when they feed on your flesh and they never get enough. A scourge that any thinking person rejects immediately.
Damn All Commies to the Outer Ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell.

169So the argument goes that racist were so pissed off
about democrats voting for the Civil Rights Act that they switched to
the party that voted for it in a higher percentage

Posted by: Deplorable Male Logic at August 22, 2017 05:09 PM

It's even stupider than that. It supposes that the racist Dems who were angry at the Civil Rights Act chose not to take their own party back, but to join the party that was founded largely on abolition. I'm having a hard time seeing how that would work, even among the very dim.

171The vast majority of Americans dying from opioid overdoses are stupid self-indulgent junkie assholes. Just as with the numerous Americans who dig their own graves with their teeth from too much junk food. My sympathies are quite limited.

Posted by: torquewrench at August 22, 2017 05:03 PM (ujwCG)

I'm not losing sleep over them either - for now. As long as they stay in their own back yards. But extrapolation is key. When you see a pattern of 1, 3, 5, 9, 99, 687 you gotta assume that the trend line is going to effect you shortly.

174It's even stupider than that. It supposes that the racist Dems who were angry at the Civil Rights Act chose not to take their own party back, but to join the party that was founded largely on abolition. I'm having a hard time seeing how that would work, even among the very dim.
Posted by: RedMindBlueState at August 22, 2017 05:12 PM (p+Wdc)

Dinesh D'Souza and Ben Shapiro have both given excellent rebuttals to this. Unsurprisingly, it's all complete bullshit.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 22, 2017 05:14 PM (0mRoj)

175It hasn't helped that in the late 60s the radical "New Left" in taking control of the Democrats took for themselves the label "liberal" which until then had been the name of their main enemies. By donning the skin-suit of the liberals they had displaced they got to both hide their true selves and remove a term from being used by those who opposed them.
Making an idea only expressible by using a phrase (like classical liberal) instead of a simple word makes that idea harder to talk about. Their hijacking also eventually rendered many texts on politics written before then muddled to those reading them later on.
Posted by: geoffb5 at August 22, 2017 04:54 PM (zOpu5)

Some blog mentioned the poor woman from Men in Black:

I tell you, I know Edgar, and that wasn't Edgar. It was like something was wearing Edgar. Like a suit... an Edgar suit.

And JJ, I think the (incorrect, stupid, slightly slanderous) implication is that the *parties* switched sides (good and evil), not just individual elected officials. It's idiotic, but that's the actual form the idiocy takes.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 22, 2017 05:15 PM (mBYZv)

177
The trouble with it is that "Liberty!" depends upon those stodgy old conservative values of which they are not so keen. Self-government means self-reliance, and "Anything Goes" culturally means the end of self-reliance, as far as I can see.

-
Yeah, survival of the fittest is OK when you're bashing creationists but not when your discussing welfare.

178
Why would there be a problem with suppressing all the speech which is against the progressive agenda, I mean everyone who's a progressive is so woke and all.

America, circling the drain since 2008

Posted by: Abe at August 22, 2017 05:15 PM (4YJHC)

179
Sefton, you just smacked this one way up into the cheap seats. You articulated what I've been thinking for a while now, far better than I've been able to. From one 58 year-old Yid to another, thank you.

Depending on how you look at it; as either a linear spectrum or circle, on the scale of liberty to authoritarian you pretty much go:anarchylibertarianliberal (in the original sense) republican (again in the original sense) liberal (in the original sense) democrat (again in the original sense)collectivist (communist, nazi, etc.)full bore tyrant with absolute personal powerAnarchy, and sorry to say, libertarianism will collapse on themselves.When they succeed they create vacuums that will be filled by more authoritarian regimes.Full bore tyrannies tend to be brittle and at some point they collapse, but until then they are tough as nails.Until recently we were locked in a struggle in the middle between different flavors of liberal, enlightened government. But we are now in a struggle with collectivist, who demand that we all express the same opinions even though different laws will apply to us.In my simple explanatory scheme it is just a small shift from one level to another, but it makes a huge difference. Nobody wants to be tagged as a collectivist, so they throw the term on us to deflect scrutiny of their own tendencies.Gotta go....

Posted by: kraki at August 22, 2017 05:15 PM (TNa9O)

181
Presidents of the United States have had some godawful hair styles down through our history.
Posted by: BurtTC at August 22, 2017 05:06 PM (TOk1P)

Trump is seventy years old. Thanks to whatever hair implants or such he's had, he has a full head of hair that's about the best combover you could ever hope for. He has excellent looking teeth, again thanks to cosmetic dentistry.

When he's not wearing a BP vest, he has little of a pot belly, something the vast majority of 70 year old men can't claim.

He is still not quite there with the makeup artists. They need to stop giving him raccoon eyes with the white undereye cover.

120F a few times, in an undisclosed location. But .... it was a "dry heat" - and it actually was, with a breeze. Made you drowzy, wasn't uncomfortable per se (if you're in the shade). Of course I wasn't buttoned up in an armored vehicle.

But far, far hotter/uncomfortable were (1) Hanoi in June (2) Massawa, Eritrea, in September. Yowzah.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 22, 2017 05:16 PM (mBYZv)

184
If not for Republicans, Overseer Andy Cooper would still own Mooch.

Most Jews, and I use the term loosely have never been to Israel, No longer go to Temple regularly if at all, know nothing of the history or customs. They might heat lox and bagels,Might

Posted by: Nevergiveup at August 22, 2017 05:17 PM (SjImc)

188
This is the best thing I've read in a long time. I can't wait to throw that down on someone.

"Yeah, survival of the fittest is OK when you're bashing creationists but not when your discussing welfare."

Posted by: Abe at August 22, 2017 05:17 PM (4YJHC)

189
As Trump was talking last night, I was struck by a thought I could not shake:

Presidents of the United States have had some godawful hair styles down through our history.
Posted by: BurtTC at August 22, 2017 05:06 PM (TOk1P)

Chet Arthur looks almost like a fat old hipster sent back on Ace's time machine.
Posted by: J.J. Sefton at August 22, 2017 05:07 PM (mbhDw)

Franklin Pierce looks like a guy who played lots of hackey sack. Thinks the moon landings were staged, and wants to tell you all about the virtues of hemp.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 22, 2017 05:17 PM (TOk1P)

190
Thanks JJ... THIS more than anything is what has bugged me about Charlottesville. The President and all Republicans were expected to disavow something they (we) never damn well avowed in the first place.

And good Lord forbid if you took the position that you don't have to agree with what someone is saying to vehemently support their right to say it.

192181 Presidents of the United States have had some godawful hair styles down through our history.
Posted by: BurtTC at August 22, 2017 05:06 PM (TOk1P)

Trump is seventy years old. Thanks to whatever hair implants or such he's had, he has a full head of hair that's about the best combover you could ever hope for. He has excellent looking teeth, again thanks to cosmetic dentistry.

When he's not wearing a BP vest, he has little of a pot belly, something the vast majority of 70 year old men can't claim.

He is still not quite there with the makeup artists. They need to stop giving him raccoon eyes with the white undereye cover.

I'd say he looks pretty damn good for a seventy year old man.

Posted by: Jen the original at August 22, 2017 05:16 PM (WFC0e)

I am old enough (pun intended) to remember how Uncle Ron was mocked for being "too old".

193
Why do so many Catholics vote Democrat? Why do so many Jews vote Democrat?

I really don't think most people take the time to really think about
the side they support, to do research and ask themselves what is right
and what is wrong and why. This really hit home for me after the 2012
election when, after everything awful he had done, Obama was reelected.

Great piece, JJ.

Posted by: bluebell at August 22, 2017 05:06 PM (UoSKV)

A lot of people like to think they're part of the 'cool kids' crowd. Our culture beats leftism into everything. From football to your favorite sitcom. It's everywhere. It takes real effort to for your own opinion. Most people are either too lazy, too busy, too indoctrinated to really look outside their comfort zone. Boom...vote D.

Posted by: Tami at August 22, 2017 05:18 PM (Enq6K)

194
My question was really rhetorical. Because if you are truly a Catholic,
by which I mean a practicing Catholic, how on earth can you vote for
the party which considers abortion to be a sacred right?--

I believe that the phrase you're looking for is "cafeteria Catholic." Believe some things, but reject others.

OTOH, my godfather, who is 83, did NOT vote for Obama the second time, since his parish came out and said, "you can't be a good catholic and vote for this guy."

Posted by: shibumi at August 22, 2017 05:18 PM (aT+Bx)

195
Apparently our US monument infection is spreading to the UK, people are talking about whether or not to remove Nelson's column.

Isn't Queen Victoria the main reason the sun never set on the British empire? Didn't she inspire eeeeevil Victorian ethnocentrism? Tear down all her stuff then too.

Can o worms, this one...

Posted by: LizLem at August 22, 2017 05:18 PM (hvf9s)

196
I know I'm not the first person to ask this, but if the Dems and Repubs "switched" in 1965 why do the Dems still consider Franklin Roosevelt to be one of their heroes?
Posted by: Aunt Luna at August 22, 2017 04:54 PM (Zd2ZF)
---
Not only that, but didn't they alert the union thugs. If the union thugs were racists (and many unions were at their start) what caused them to suddenly embrace the "least racist" party? Did they get the memo or didn't they?

They also don't seem want to dishonor the Great Re-segregator, Woodrow Wilson. Because Wilson was the definition of the elite that they covet for themselves. An intellectual, academic, who really thought he had it all over the founders.

But Wilson was a huge racist--as racist eugenics were very sophisticated and scientific back in those days. Yes, the Dems did have a populist preacher Byran--who was motivated to act as prosecutor in the Scopes trial, because of the rarely publicized fact that the reason the book the ACLU hired Scopes to teach out of was banned was because of its eugenics--but they also had the "scientific" student of Dewey's school of rationalism in Wilson.

What they can't deal with is that Dems have always been more the side of realpolitik. Wilson signed the Sedition Act and ushered in a wave of suppressing criticism of the president. Bryan blustered that people who differed with him on the gold standard was crucifying people on a "CROSS OF GOLD!!" The KKK weren't happy with simply politics but conducted night raids.

The Dems seemed to have always attracted the most intemperate of Americans, that weren't outright socialists. BLM and the Auntie Fascists are their legacy. The professors who think they now need to justify shutting down free speech on campuses while living off of taxpayer dollars funneled to them, through "college for everybody". They set themselves up a tax-free strategy by 501 tax rules, which they simply deny to anybody whose idea of "social welfare" clashes with theirs. They tear their clothes about invasion of privacy such as in the Patriotic act, while later using every pretense they could to unmask communications of the campaign of a political rival. (The Watergate break-in is old technology. Nixon wouldn't have needed it with modern spy technology).

If Republicans use the long, steady, sluggish process of government to gain control and try to leverage their agenda through formal means, that the calmer Republicans have always endorsed, such trespassing on their domain is enough to make that side fly free of their hinges, and even though they talked about perjury as not high enough of a "crime or misdemeanor" for Bill Clinton to be impeached, have basically made it known that they will impeach the opposing president for almost any reason they can scrounge.

There is a party that is named after our proper form of government: Republic, and there is a party named after what many generations have read as "mob control": Demos.

It takes a special self-possession to glibly say "That switched". (Do OVER!!)

Posted by: Axeman at August 22, 2017 05:18 PM (2mC6G)

197
The prevailing wisdom re: Jews is that they consider themselves a minority, and do not feel that Republicans support minorities.
--

I think this applies to Asians, too. Though maybe one day the college-admissions-quota stuff will make them reconsider. Just like it did with... yeah, guess I see a pattern here.

Posted by: Geronimo Stilton at August 22, 2017 05:19 PM (10LGw)

198It's even stupider than that. It supposes that the racist Dems who were angry at the Civil Rights Act chose not to take their own party back, but to join the party that was founded largely on abolition. I'm having a hard time seeing how that would work, even among the very dim.
Posted by: RedMindBlueState at August 22, 2017 05:12 PM (p+Wdc)

Yes I know. We're supposed to believe that southern families that had voted democrate for4 or5 generations and didn't even celebrate Lincoln's birthday they despised him so much made the switch at the snap of the fingers

Posted by: Deplorable Male Logic at August 22, 2017 05:19 PM (lKyWE)

199
>>>My question was really rhetorical. Because if you are truly a Catholic, by which I mean a practicing Catholic, how on earth can you vote for the party which considers abortion to be a sacred right?

Don't know, but I try not to play the "who's the better Catholic" game.

Posted by: Banana Splits Guy at August 22, 2017 05:19 PM (lh08N)

200
186
Missouri pit stop, about 40 miles from Arkansas. Still several hours to go.

Fox news was linking Charlottesville with Arpaio. Fuck them all.

Off I go.

Posted by: Country Boy at August 22, 2017 05:17 PM (zbm3D)

I waved at you CB! Tammy al-Thor will wave once you cross the Arkansas border.

I'm not losing sleep over them either - for now. As long as they stay in their own back yards. But extrapolation is key. When you see a pattern of 1, 3, 5, 9, 99, 687 you gotta assume that the trend line is going to effect you shortly.

I just educate them on Al Gore Sr, Robert Byrd and Bill Clinton's mentor, William Fulbright.

Posted by: Jack Sock at August 22, 2017 05:20 PM (glJL/)

205
Thanks JJ... THIS more than anything is what has bugged me about Charlottesville. The President and all Republicans were expected to disavow something they (we) never damn well avowed in the first place.

His hair looks like a Corvette Stingray that was taken to a shop to fix a problem with the fiberglass. And the shop has no experience or talent working with fiberglass.

Posted by: BurtTC at August 22, 2017 05:21 PM (TOk1P)

208I think this applies to Asians, too. Though maybe one day the
college-admissions-quota stuff will make them reconsider. Just like it
did with... yeah, guess I see a pattern here.---The PR arm of Trump Inc. needs to take over the RNC.

As I've noted before: I know people who are active Catholics - the sort who teach CCD classes at home, now that their kids are grown/gone.

They donate to PP. They wouldn't vote for any party other than Dems, at gun-point.

Oh - it gets better. The mother - who railed, reasonably, against the teacher union idiocy affecting her kids, when they were K - 12 - apparently has no idea that CA Dem party is, more or less, an extension of the teacher's union (more than any other controlling outside entity).

And it gets even better. The father is a gun owner. Made a point, when I asked him about a particular gun store in his area I'd heard about, to mock the people there, for thinking laws would be passed limiting firearms rights. In CA.

I don't have to go far to find people who are active, mouthy, clueless "libs" who literally support things anathema to their other, mouthy, clueless "politics".

Which is why I default to: it's not about "politics", it's about effective IQ, analytical capability, and seriousness.

212
Watergate hero Sam Earvin was an avowed racist and segregationist. So was Al Gore Sr. And William Fulbright, Bill Clinton's first mentor. Carl Vinson and John Stennis --both segregationists--have destroyers and carriers named after them.
Segregation was NEVER a part of the GOP platform or agenda.

Posted by: JoeF. at August 22, 2017 05:22 PM (7uYFy)

213
Who killed more people in the 20th Century than Hitler? Only malaria and Anti-Fascists (aka Communists).

Posted by: OCBill at August 22, 2017 05:22 PM (df+Zi)

214I think this applies to Asians, too. Though maybe one day the college-admissions-quota stuff will make them reconsider. Just like it did with... yeah, guess I see a pattern here.
Posted by: Geronimo Stilton at August 22, 2017 05:19 PM (10LGw)

Having grown up and went to school as a "minority" among the Asian Persuasion, it used to madden me how knee-jerk Left many of them were, in the face of all evidence to the contrary.

I chalked it up to being academic, and in order to advance or even stay in most of academia, you had to adopt the Left Mannerisms. At least patriot blogger Arthur Hu explained it that way to me and it made sense.

215
I think this applies to Asians, too. Though maybe one day the college-admissions-quota stuff will make them reconsider. Just like it did with... yeah, guess I see a pattern here.
Posted by: Geronimo Stilton at August 22, 2017 05:19 PM (10LGw)

My personal experience with the Asians I know, they are very conservative.

Some of my friends parents were in the internment camps. The kids are all conservatives

Posted by: CaliGirl at August 22, 2017 05:23 PM (Ri/rl)

216
I just educate them on Al Gore Sr, Robert Byrd and Bill Clinton's mentor, William Fulbright.
Posted by: Jack Sock at August 22, 2017 05:20 PM (glJL/)
---
But it's not enough, is it? I've tried dozens of tacks, and I only get back lemming responses. Because they've been absolved by their authorities, and been blessed to continue flattering themselves.

Posted by: Axeman at August 22, 2017 05:23 PM (2mC6G)

217
I just saw lefties bragging abt getting tickets for #PhoenixRally just so fake news can report he has a ton of empty seats! Watch for it.

Posted by: Islamic Rage Boy at August 22, 2017 05:24 PM (PRT1c)

218My question was really rhetorical. Because if you are truly a Catholic, by which I mean a practicing Catholic, how on earth can you vote for the party which considers abortion to be a sacred right?

Among many others issues, of course, but that one is high up on the list, for me, at least.
Posted by: bluebell at August 22, 2017 05:16 PM (UoSKV)

Practicing Catholics tend to vote Republican. About the only group that skews that are Hispanics who are practicing but they love them some government control.

Posted by: buzzion at August 22, 2017 05:24 PM (z/Ubi)

219
182
My question was really rhetorical. Because if you are truly a Catholic, by which I mean a practicing Catholic, how on earth can you vote for the party which considers abortion to be a sacred right?

Posted by: bluebell at August 22, 2017 05:16 PM (UoSKV)
------------------------------
Practicing Catholics usually vote conservative.
But many people who self-identify as "Catholic" mean it in a cultural-heritage sense.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at August 22, 2017 05:24 PM (0jtPF)

220The 1968 election that turned the south for Nixon didn't have anything to do with race it was an anti-communist vote.

Posted by: Deplorable Male Logic at August 22, 2017 05:24 PM (lKyWE)

221His hair looks like a Corvette Stingray that was taken to a shop to fix a problem with the fiberglass. And the shop has no experience or talent working with fiberglass.

LOL

I could take a summer squash and send it through the Zoodler, put it on my head, and it would look better.

Posted by: Under Fire at August 22, 2017 05:24 PM (mcI77)

222
Damned Commies are like zombies, you bury them and they just rise up out of the grave.

226
Don't know, but I try not to play the "who's the better Catholic" game.
Posted by: Banana Splits Guy at August 22, 2017 05:19 PM (lh08N)
-----------

I'm not either. But unbeknownst perhaps to many, the USCCB came out with a document before the 2008 election that stressed that the consideration of life must come before all other political considerations. They didn't name any names, and they left a very narrow opening for people who may consider some other issue paramount, but in pretty grave terms said you better be darn sure of your reasoning. This was a big issue on my homeschool email group, which is why I remember it. I had the unfortunate position of being one of the two moderators. I had a lot of sleepless nights back then.

My own parish is conservative, but when I'm at others I've seen plenty of "Catholics for Choice" bumper stickers and the like. You can't be both. You can call yourself whatever you want, but if you favor abortion, you're not practicing your Catholic faith.

228
The United States has decided to deny Egypt $95.7 million in aid and to delay a further $195 million, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

The reason for the decision is Egypts failure to make progress on respecting human rights and democratic norms, the report said.

The decision reflects a U.S. desire to continue security cooperation as well as frustration with Cairos stance on civil liberties, notably a new law that regulates non-governmental organizations, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

????
Look I am no fan of Egypt or any Arab Country, but who's side are we on here? I mean Sisi is fighting the same radicals as we are? And the alternative to Sisi is the Muslim Brotherhood...I smell the State Department .. What the Fuck is going on here

Posted by: Nevergiveup at August 22, 2017 05:26 PM (SjImc)

229
Who killed more people in the 20th Century than Hitler? Only malaria and Anti-Fascists (aka Communists).

Most Jews, and I use the term loosely have never been to Israel, No longer go to Temple regularly if at all, know nothing of the history or customs. They might heat lox and bagels,Might
Posted by: Nevergiveup at August 22, 2017 05:17 PM (SjImc)

This pretty much sums up Mark Levin's opinion on this subject. Considering he is a practicing Jew, I take his opinion seriously.

I also agree with it. I have numerous Jewish friends and acquaintances and without fail, all of them only go to temple for funerals, and occasional holidays (Rare). All of them are extremely liberal and several , whose parents emigrated here to escape the early signs of the Holocaust, no longer believe religiously because if they were the "chosen people", God wouldn't have don't this to them.

They totally believe the Democrats love them and would never forsake them again, are so charitable, etc.

Or they hid being Jewish for so long they forgot what it is, and have found they can live without their faith.

Posted by: Jen the original at August 22, 2017 05:26 PM (WFC0e)

231
Totally OT, but y'all in Brownsville and South Padre Island are gonna get pretty wet in a couple of days, and the rest of us in South and East Texas are in for a woolly weekend/start of next week.

I'm guessing the stores are gonna get hit starting tomorrow, so plan accordingly...

Posted by: Anon a mouse... at August 22, 2017 05:27 PM (MINbv)

232
My question was really rhetorical. Because if you are truly a Catholic, by which I mean a practicing Catholic, how on earth can you vote for the party which considers abortion to be a sacred right?

Among many others issues, of course, but that one is high up on the list, for me, at least.
Posted by: bluebell at August 22, 2017 05:16 PM (UoSKV)

There are many Catholics, both "practicing" or lapsed who simply identify as "Catholic." It is their heritage. There are Protestants like that too. Haven't been inside a Church in decades, but if you ask them, they'll say "I'm a Protestant."

240
To no acclaim whatsoever, rightcha here in these comment sections, I've been using the term "racist authoritarians" in place of "liberal left leftists" etc, for months now.

Simply because it fits much better.

Note: by definition, most actual voters voting for the racist authoritarians don't think of themselves as either. They'd probably never race-bait, nothing like the breath-taking insanity we see this week. Nor do they long for a strongman to control everyone's lives.

Like the couple I described above, they're strict Catholics who donate to PP/support Dems only, parents with problematic unionized teachers who support the unions' instrument (Dems) only, gun-owners who pooh-pooh something is literally happening around them every year, with increasing momentum.

People who literally have no idea of the practical implications of their "politics". To them it's all illiterate moral narcissism (opposing baaaaad stuff, taking care of cute little brown children, atoning for imaginary sins that the pop culture/disinformation/de-education marinade have made them worry about).

Ok, so some few years ago, when upgrading my PC, I bought two Vertex SSD drives....256 GB each. At first, they worked great. Not long ago, one of the drives failed. Just no longer appears to exist at all...according to my BIOS. Ok...so maybe I had a crap drive. I reinstalled everything on to the remaining SSD, and for a month, it worked fine. Now this one just died, the same exact way. Vertex was no help...the drives can't be repaired, and are just out of warranty.

Lesson learned, and I will not be purchasing Vertex products again in the future.

247
We're supposed to believe that southern families
that had voted democrate for4 or5 generations and didn't even celebrate
Lincoln's birthday they despised him so much made the switch at the snap
of the fingers

248
The 1968 election that turned the south for Nixon didn't have anything to do with race it was an anti-communist vote.
Posted by: Deplorable Male Logic at August 22, 2017 05:24 PM (lKyWE)

Exactly. There were other issues--Vietnam, law and order, economics. As I said, Segregation as a settled issue. It was dead--except for holdouts like Walace. It was wasn't like southerners flocked to the GOP because it was the new home of segregation. There were other issues.....

You can see where the split amongst Catholics is. And it is as I said. The "even split" of Catholics amongst Democrat and Republicans is because of the GOPe's favorite people "naturally conservative Hispanics" going overwhelmingly to the Democrat

Posted by: buzzion at August 22, 2017 05:32 PM (z/Ubi)

250
"Conservative," as a concept, is and always has been something of a moving target. I suppose the same if true of the concept of "Liberalism": The goalposts are always moving, because society is not static.

I have thought about this notion quite of bit over the past decade or so. Today's "conservative" would probably look a lot like the 60's "liberal." Not making a value judgement with that statement, just making an observation. All that said, J.J. is probably on to something with his new paradigm of "Are you a proponent of the way this country was founded or not?"

That is the current, singular argument over which our nation's future lies. The founding fathers really knew what they were doing when they founded this nation; they did not have the distraction of the vapid celebrities and the Internet to distract them from their duty. And though a product of their time, they understood that certain human concepts and behaviors transcend time. What is scary is that we have a goodly number of people in the U.S. who have no firmly rooted sense of reality, sniping at the founding fathers' grand work, and thinking that socialism is the balm for all ills. What's more frightening is that if we lose this battle, there is no no undiscovered land for us to start the grand experiment anew.

Posted by: Shinjinrui at August 22, 2017 05:32 PM (h5hE3)

251
shibumi- The RNC tried that final notice shit too. I called their financial division and chewed 100 lbs of ass. I deeply resent being dunned for something I will make a choice of.

253 It was wasn't like southerners flocked to the GOP because it was the new home of segregation. There were other issues.....
Posted by: JoeF. at August 22, 2017 05:31 PM (7uYFy)

Yeah like the labor unions who supported the democratic party were infested by communist

Posted by: Deplorable Male Logic at August 22, 2017 05:33 PM (lKyWE)

254
I wouldn't really disagree... the people I know have conservative/bourgeois values and nevertheless vote pretty solidly for Dems. (May be related to living in a college town.)
Posted by: Geronimo Stilton at August 22, 2017 05:28 PM (10LGw)

Maybe it's because the people I'm thinking of all own their own business.

Posted by: CaliGirl at August 22, 2017 05:33 PM (Ri/rl)

255
Wish Zombie could be at the Trump Rally... We would have some good pictures

Posted by: It's me donna at August 22, 2017 05:35 PM (O2RFr)

256
Maybe it's because the people I'm thinking of all own their own business.
Posted by: CaliGirl at August

How do you know how they vote?

Posted by: yankeefifth at August 22, 2017 05:35 PM (0wem/)

257
I know I'm not the first person to ask this, but if the Dems and Repubs "switched" in 1965 why do the Dems still consider Franklin Roosevelt to be one of their heroes?

I quickly perused that video. It's kind of dangerous to assume that Asperger Syndrome folks are farting, butt scratching nit-wits. They may very well take their schoolbooks home at night and be able to plow all that data into their heads and come to school the next day and score 100% on the test. But it's data they recite, not information. They then go to Daily Kos or Huffington Post and plow all that disinformation into their heads and can recite it back word for word.

Once again, not information. There's some four lane highway of data storage ability they have that we 'normals' don't have. We read, decipher, compare, reject or accept. They can't. They mainline data like a junkie with a rubber hose in his mouth and needle at ready.

It's not going to be helpful to defeat them with some per-conceived notion of their inferiority. Their vote negates yours.

260
The United States has decided to deny Egypt $95.7 million in aid and to delay a further $195 million, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

...

The reason for the decision is Egypts failure to make
????

Look I am no fan of Egypt or any Arab Country, but who's side are we on here? I mean Sisi is fighting the same radicals as we are? And the alternative to Sisi is the Muslim Brotherhood...I smell the State Department .. What the Fuck is going on here

President Donald Trump has said many times that no longer is the US going to try to make our friends be like us.

Is this a done deal? I hope not. Donald should take this and stick it up States' giant brown starfish.

Posted by: gNewt at August 22, 2017 05:36 PM (beZXb)

261
You can see where the split amongst Catholics is. And it is as I said. The "even split" of Catholics amongst Democrat and Republicans is because of the GOPe's favorite people "naturally conservative Hispanics" going overwhelmingly to the Democrat
Posted by: buzzion at August 22, 2017 05:32 PM (z/Ubi)
---------

Thanks, buzzion. I do know all that. I really was just venting.

Oh well, time to make shrimp tacos by request for my daughter's birthday. This is the daughter who, last year, I couldn't remember how old she was turning (23, I guessed 22) and my husband texted her sister wishing her happy birthday instead. We're doing better this year, so far.

Posted by: bluebell at August 22, 2017 05:36 PM (UoSKV)

262The founding fathers really knew what they were doing when they founded this nation......And though a product of their time, they understood that certain human concepts and behaviors transcend time.

Posted by: Shinjinrui at August 22, 2017 05:32 PM (h5hE3)

I DO think this is an important point. Conservatives, USA style (although this might apply to Anglosphere Tories too) understand the human nature is what it is, and attempts to create a "New Soviet Man" or "New Order Man" are folly at best and nightmares at worst. The Left believes in that.

This is not to say that we should not have societal policies that reward good behavior and punish bad behavior, but a realistic understanding of human behavior seems a must to me.

(Of course the Left specializes in warping the definitions of good and bad, but let's leave that for another post).

Oh well, time to make shrimp tacos by request for my daughter's birthday. This is the daughter who, last year, I couldn't remember how old she was turning (23, I guessed 22) and my husband texted her sister wishing her happy birthday instead. We're doing better this year, so far.
Posted by: bluebell at August 22, 2017 05:36 PM (UoSKV)

I figured, but I wanted to give actual info rather than some BS above it all "I'm not going to play some who's the better Catholic" ego stroking.

Posted by: buzzion at August 22, 2017 05:39 PM (z/Ubi)

269
How do you know how they vote?
Posted by: yankeefifth at August 22, 2017 05:35 PM (0wem/)

They could lie but I doubt it.

They go to the same fundraisers we do that are a lost cause pretty much here in CA. We all discuss politics. I'm not positive if the parents were conservatives but all the old time farmers seem to be.

I quickly perused that video. It's kind of dangerous to assume that Asperger Syndrome folks are farting, butt scratching nit-wits. They may very well take their schoolbooks home at night and be able to plow all that data into their heads and come to school the next day and score 100% on the test. But it's data they recite, not information. They then go to Daily Kos or Huffington Post and plow all that disinformation into their heads and can recite it back word for word.

Once again, not information. There's some four lane highway of data storage ability they have that we 'normals' don't have. We read, decipher, compare, reject or accept. They can't. They mainline data like a junkie with a rubber hose in his mouth and needle at ready.

It's not going to be helpful to defeat them with some per-conceived notion of their inferiority. Their vote negates yours.
Posted by: Slippery Slope Salesman at August 22, 2017 05:36 PM (EgwCt)

Knowledge without wisdom and all that.

I am reminded of the stupid Leftists who say things like "minds are like parachutes", who forget that a parachute is half-closed. Such Leftist minds are invariably in free-fall, heading for a SPLAT.

274
I love FDR too. Ever since I watched him on TV calming the people after the Stock Market crash. He was amazing.

Posted by: Joe Biden at August 22, 2017 05:40 PM (glJL/)

275267 Local talkradioman was speaking to Asian community he knows and loves - they conduct their lives and business as conservative as the best of them - - -
and vote Democrat.
Posted by: gNewt at August 22, 2017 05:38 PM (beZXb)

Sorry to hear that. OCZ (Toshiba) Vertex had insane failure rates. Got one to return to the living with "PartedMagic"...

Good luck.

Posted by: Anon a mouse... at August 22, 2017 05:41 PM (MINbv)

277
One of my favorites is a friend who's wife is a default useless racist/authoritarian (of the most ingenuous sort - she would never agree to most things that are racist or authoritarian ..... but her "politics" supports those things).

She's Asian, so daughter is half-breed. Daughter is smart, etc. Daughter wasn't going to get in to elite university; suspicion arose that it was an Asian quota thing; mom went ape-shit with fury over affirmative action/race quotas blah blah blah.

Hilarious. These things hadn't concerned her, in the least, as they ravaged society and the civic culture - not until they affected her precious. Then? Nukyler war.

279
How do you know how they vote?
Posted by: yankeefifth at August 22, 2017 05:35 PM (0wem/)

Also, my good girlfriend is from South Korea. She is really conservative. She just started her own business.

She gets fired up. I would bet a million dollars on her vote.

Posted by: CaliGirl at August 22, 2017 05:41 PM (Ri/rl)

280
ounding fathers really knew what they were doing when they founded this nation......And though a product of their time, they understood that certain human concepts and behaviors transcend time.

Posted by: Shinjinrui at August

Well, they also founded it, or worked on the foundation, from the wrong side of liberty. They were fighting to get what they did not have and stop abuses they were suffering. So few have knowledge and or understanding of how things were and how bad they could be and they never stop to think where the path they are advocating leads.

Posted by: yankeefifth at August 22, 2017 05:41 PM (0wem/)

281277 One of my favorites is a friend who's wife is a default useless racist/authoritarian (of the most ingenuous sort - she would never agree to most things that are racist or authoritarian ..... but her "politics" supports those things).

She's Asian, so daughter is half-breed. Daughter is smart, etc. Daughter wasn't going to get in to elite university; suspicion arose that it was an Asian quota thing; mom went ape-shit with fury over affirmative action/race quotas blah blah blah.

Hilarious. These things hadn't concerned her, in the least, as they ravaged society and the civic culture - not until they affected her precious. Then? Nukyler war.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 22, 2017 05:41 PM (mBYZv)

As with formerly leftist Jews, sometimes you need to get mugged by reality. :-)

284
Speaking of 1968, the majority of the talking heads on cable news weren't even born yet and talk like they were there. I remember watching every week night Walter Cronkite covering all the riots and chaos going on in the big cities and colleges. Also the two major assassinations of RFK MLK. Then there was the DEM convention in Chicago. That year was nuts and driven by most of those tenured professors in the universities today.

286
>>>In essence, as the Buffalo Springfield crooned 50 years ago "nobody's right if everybody's wrong."

Or, as Tommy Joice, the lounge piano player on The Big Bus says,
"There are no winners in a game of losers."

Posted by: bergerbilder at August 22, 2017 05:44 PM (lIZQs)

287
From the Republican House and Senate leadership, the first principle is that "the Spice must flow".

Posted by: mrp at August 22, 2017 05:44 PM (Pqytn)

288
She's Asian, so daughter is half-breed. Daughter is smart, etc. Daughter wasn't going to get in to elite university; suspicion arose that it was an Asian quota thing; mom went ape-shit with fury over affirmative action/race quotas blah blah blah.

Hilarious. These things hadn't concerned her, in the least, as they ravaged society and the civic culture - not until they affected her precious. Then? Nukyler war.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 22, 2017 05:41 PM (mBYZv)

I'll admit that I was neutral on Affirmative Action...

Right up until it affected me personally...

When politics DO suddenly affect you and yours directly... it does tend to bring things into perspective.

Posted by: Don Q. at August 22, 2017 05:45 PM (NgKpN)

289287 From the Republican House and Senate leadership, the first principle is that "the Spice must flow".
Posted by: mrp at August 22, 2017 05:44 PM (Pqytn)

290Mitch McConnell is privately predicting Trump's demise. McConnell and Ryan hate us more than they do the Left.
Posted by: mrp at August 22, 2017 05:39 PM (Pqytn)

So the people who voted for and support PDT have a leader of the party. Who the hell do the nevertrumpers have? Who in their ranks is going to step up and be the face of their wing?

Posted by: Deplorable Male Logic at August 22, 2017 05:47 PM (lKyWE)

291
Leland Yee, infamously guilty of felony international arms trafficking (no, I'm not kidding), formerly CA state senator to Chinatown in SF (correction if that's off), I believe, departed from the idiot orthodoxy of destruction guiding CA Dem legislators when ..... some kind of race-conscious admissions policy for state universities reared its head.

Sort of cute. Complete authoritarian otherwise - but when constituents heard about the policy that might disadvantage their kids, who of course work hard and *are* superior candidates to the average for admissions ..... whoa nelly. He backed off that instantly.

320 million humans living in the US, not all that many citizens, however (in the mindset, not status, sense).

Posted by: rhomboid at August 22, 2017 05:47 PM (mBYZv)

292
Neither side of my family ever thought much of Lincoln. Most of the ones who voted Democratic, however, came up in the Depression and thought a lot of FDR.

One would think, after witnessing eight years of peaceful radical transformation, people would have gained an insight to the deep feeling brought about
by reconstruction. But no.

People in the South did not vote Republican because - Reconstruction. Republicans wore the banner of reconstruction and that was plenty enough to never utter the word without an epithet.

Posted by: gNewt at August 22, 2017 05:47 PM (beZXb)

293Pres. Trump just landed in AZ. He's signing autographs for members of the military there. After 8 long years it must be a relief for men and women in uniform to know their CiC doesn't hate their guts and has their backs.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at August 22, 2017 05:48 PM (493sH)

294
Who killed more people in the 20th Century than Hitler? Only malaria and Anti-Fascists (aka Communists).
https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH_C_MORTACRACIES.GIF

Posted by: Skip at August 22, 2017 05:48 PM (pPKG5)

295
Commenter at Instapundit noted that Weird Dave wrote the post and mentioned JJ's post as well.

Posted by: never enough caffeine at August 22, 2017 05:49 PM (N3JsI)

296
Also, my good girlfriend is from South Korea. She is really conservative. She just started her own business.

She gets fired up. I would bet a million dollars on her vote.
Posted by: CaliGirl at August

Well, South Korean, heh, that is one thing. Chinese and Japanese are another. South Koreans, well Koreans, have a very different culture and outlook. There is a reason they were never part of china, same for why the japanese had to keep invading.

Sorry to hear that. OCZ (Toshiba) Vertex had insane failure rates. Got one to return to the living with "PartedMagic"...

Good luck.

Posted by: Anon a mouse... at August 22, 2017 05:41 PM (MINbv)

If you are at all tech inclined, check out the Testdisk utility to restore a zombie drive. Don't expect that it won't die irretrievably in the process and lose all your data, because it went tits up in the first place for a reason. Of course, standard warnings about backups apply.But Testdisk has saved my bacon more than once.

305
Well, affirmative action is repugnant and repulsive. People who benefited from a system that was or was not unfairly structured against women and minorities decided that the way to assuage their guilty consciences was to create another system that put the burden of paying for the benefits they enjoyed / burdens others suffered, which places the burden on people who had no role or benefit from the system.

I am in pull up the ladder.

Posted by: yankeefifth at August 22, 2017 05:52 PM (0wem/)

306300 How it affects me, if it does (rarely), has never played any role whatsoever in my views on any public policy matter.

This has made the transition to where I view other Americans, and their "situation" or "interests", with total indifference easier.

Can't get too worried about people who are both stupid, AND selfish.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 22, 2017 05:50 PM (QDnY+)

I think you are smart enough to understand how much it really DOES affect you.

Other people are not so far along. But as they wise up, I accept them and tell them "Welcome to the club..."

There is enough of a bad image of the Right as an elitist club (and the GOPee serve that image well, without really being Right at that).

307
Well, South Korean, heh, that is one thing. Chinese and Japanese are another. South Koreans, well Koreans, have a very different culture and outlook. There is a reason they were never part of china, same for why the japanese had to keep invading.
Posted by: yankeefifth at August 22, 2017 05:49 PM (0wem/)

I swear my Japanese friends are as conservative as I am. We all talk politics. I can't imagine they're faking it to fit in.
But they would be classified as small business owners.

315
I swear my Japanese friends are as conservative as I am. We all talk politics. I can't imagine they're faking it to fit in.
But they would be classified as small business owners.
Posted by: CaliGirl at August

Not saying they are faking it but Japanese, especially those raised in Japan, tend to be non-confrontational. May not agree with you but will not openly disagree with you either.

Ratings for them at newegg.com seem to be giving them 4 and 5 out of 5's. Maybe go there and look at their cons though.

Posted by: buzzion at August 22, 2017 05:59 PM (z/Ubi)

327
I am in pull up the ladder.
Posted by: yankeefifth at August 22, 2017 05:52 PM (

I think big business uses the same justification for more regulations. They can afford the compliance costs and it's a barrier to entry for new competitors.
Posted by: CaliGirl at August

yeah they do that lots.

Posted by: yankeefifth at August 22, 2017 05:59 PM (0wem/)

328I don't think Cornelius Vanderbilt owned any slaves. He used his shipping company to fight for the Union.
Posted by: Jack Sock at August 22, 2017 05:56 PM (glJL/)

And he also donated one million dollars to create Vanderbilt University as a sign of reconciliation with the south

Posted by: John McLame at August 22, 2017 06:00 PM (lKyWE)

329Not saying they are faking it but Japanese, especially those raised in Japan, tend to be non-confrontational. May not agree with you but will not openly disagree with you either.
Posted by: yankeefifth at August 22, 2017 05:55 PM (

The kids chime in and sound just like we all do. Their parents intimidated me. I would never talk politics in front of their parents. We made small talk. The parents were good people.

Posted by: CaliGirl at August 22, 2017 06:00 PM (Ri/rl)

330
Here's a poll from a couple of years ago where Asian-Americans lean (D) by about a 2:1 margin:

http://tinyurl.com/yayktbgo

Which is actually better than I would have expected.

Posted by: Geronimo Stilton at August 22, 2017 06:00 PM (10LGw)

331
Probably woke up groggy, not knowing what day it was, and commented on an old post.

Posted by: irright at August 22, 2017 04:45 PM (pMGkg)

Either that or he's been to Ikea again.

Posted by: wth at August 22, 2017 06:00 PM (HgMAr)

332
If I understand them the left says Nazi stands for the national small government, rule of law, free enterprise and liberty party.
That can only mean they hate those things.

Posted by: Northernlurker at August 22, 2017 06:01 PM (eAMlh)

333
>> I swear my Japanese friends are as conservative as I am. We all talk politics. I can't imagine they're faking it to fit in.

336
I don't think Cornelius Vanderbilt owned any slaves. He used his shipping company to fight for the Union.--

Your use of facts trigger me.

I am TRIGGERED!!!!!

Posted by: SJW feminists at August 22, 2017 06:02 PM (aT+Bx)

337
The kids chime in and sound just like we all do. Their parents intimidated me. I would never talk politics in front of their parents. We made small talk. The parents were good people.
Posted by: CaliGirl at August

Simply making the point that there is a cultural consideration. Ever negotiate with a Japanese client. It is

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."

"So we are in agreement, should we sign the contract?"

"No."

Posted by: yankeefifth at August 22, 2017 06:02 PM (0wem/)

338And he also donated one million dollars to create Vanderbilt University as a sign of reconciliation with the south

And founded Asheville for all the people, craftsmen and artisans who built Biltmore Estate.

374
The 1968 election that turned the south for Nixon didn't have anything to do with race it was an anti-communist vote.

Posted by: Deplorable Male Logic at August 22, 2017 05:24 PM (lKyWE)
---
Deep South didn't vote for Nixon in 1968. Those states went for Wallace, southern Democrat's answer to Northern Dems., and very, very racist.

That's another reason I'm skeptical about the "Southern Strategy" narrative. Nixon never won the South, until 72 when he won every state except Massachusetts. The South didn't do him any favors except to agree with the landslide.

Posted by: Axeman at August 22, 2017 06:11 PM (2mC6G)

375Paul Ryan had the savvy political instinct to attack the president on the night he was announcing a troop increase in Afghanistan

382
Ruth Bader-Meinhoff sock, actually it was the idiot O'Connor who said that, right?

Though Sandra must be complimented on unwittingly penning the ultimate admission the courts were ludicriously exceeding their authority. Reviewing a program, after so many years, like a legislative committee, or an inter-agency committee of the executive.

Post-constitutional, lawless, un-American America. There's plenty of reason to kneel for the anthem - just the opposite ones that these stupid racist athletes think.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 22, 2017 06:13 PM (mBYZv)

383
I wonder how many flaming skulls Obama bankrupting the Secret Service in under 8 months would have got from Ace.

Tweeeeeeeeet! After further review, the ruling on the field stands. Use of two names whilst trolling. 10 yards and loss of down.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at August 22, 2017 06:19 PM (ctuyM)

404
"Evil is charming and beautiful. It makes you doubt yourself. It asks for one small compromise after another until it whittles you down. It functions best when no one believes in it."- Barbara Hall, From Joan of Arcadia, Episode Romancing The Joan, Lilly (ex-nun) to Helen on her intuition about Will's boss.

What we believe is set out in the Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. It is there for everyone to see. In the words of Robert Bartley, Free People, Free Markets.

The problem is the Republican political class do not see this a fight between good and the powers of darkness. They think of politics like antiquated school boys playing a contest among gentlemen. The consequences of winning and losing being secondary to how one plays the game. We must find a way to disabuse them of the school boy mentality or else replace them with people who see the leftists as the embodiment of evil.

Only when the Republicans recognize what the leftist are, will the leftist be held accountable.

Posted by: Locke Common at August 22, 2017 06:19 PM (I2kp0)

405
>>>The Book of Revelation says the Antichrist suffers a fatal head wound but then comes back to life.

Trump looked at eclipse and went blind! Now he is alive!
And his hair is definitely in Revelation.

Posted by: wooga at August 22, 2017 06:19 PM (5/Ej2)

406
So Grant's wife was partying with the slaves while he was stumbling drunk all over the South?

IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE EVEN THE ORIGINAL MARY CLOEGGENSTEIN WAS JUST A MADE UP SOCK PUPPET, LIKE BARRY THE MAGNIFICENT OR THE WORLD'S MOST BEAUTIFUL QUARTERBACK.

Posted by: BEN ROETHLISBERGER at August 22, 2017 06:19 PM (XQvuQ)

409
"Though Sandra must be complimented on unwittingly penning the ultimate
admission the courts were ludicriously exceeding their authority.
Reviewing a program, after so many years, like a legislative committee,
or an inter-agency committee of the executive."

The SCOTUS as the "Supreme Inter-Agency Committee".

I'm *so* stealing that.

Posted by: torquewrench at August 22, 2017 06:19 PM (ujwCG)

410377 in fact, august 28, will be the 49th anniversary of buckley threatening to sock vidal for calling him a nazi.

plus ca change...

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at August 22, 2017 06:07 PM (AxFdW)

Are we allowed to sock people who call us that.

If by sock you mean, thrusting a Karbar above the Adams apple until it protrudes through the cerebral cortex then yes.

422
The SS is not bankrupt.
Posted by: redbanzai at August 22, 2017 06:13 PM (3JA/M)
Or at least not any more bankrupt than the rest of the "running on empty" federal government.
Posted by: redbanzai at August 22, 2017 06:15 PM (3JA/M)

Yup....they borrow from Ponzi to pay Madoff. All smoke and mirrors.

No one believes the government accounting except children, fools, thieves, pederasts and Congress.

But again I repeat myself.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 22, 2017 06:23 PM (5VlCp)

423
Sad. Once upon a time, P.J. O'Rourke was brilliant. And one would think 8 years of Obamunism would have given him ample material.

Fuck off, P.J.

it is telling how the last year or two has revealed who is really for us and who isn't.

425
Until the Right can answer Malone's Question non rhetorically, it will continue to lose, and lose badly. The Left controls the State - the Right cannot rely on the law being applied evenly, or at all. The Left controls the media - the Right cannot rely on even coverage, or any coverage at all.

Malone: You said you wanted to get Capone. Do you really wanna get him? You see, what I'm saying is, what are you prepared to do?

Ness: Anything within the law.

Malone: And *then* what are you prepared to do? If you open the can on these worms, you must be prepared to go all the way. Because they're not gonna give up the fight until one of you is dead.

Put another way - as Horace Walpole observed: "No country was ever saved by good men, because good men will not go to the length that may be necessary."

Posted by: FaCubeItches at August 22, 2017 06:23 PM (rznWS)

426
The only group that votes republican in any meaningful numbers are white people...

440
Instead when it's the lifelong grifter Trump we get crickets
Posted by: Grifter Trump
------
Ah...'lifelong grifter'. As opposed, one imagines, to the Obamas, who as far as I can tell never held any sort of significant private employment. They certainly never provided a job to anyone.

448
Italy was terrified of the communists. Mussolini and his cronies decided to invent an alternative to communism, something that would retain all it's attractive elements, but protect the church, and private business. It was called fascism - facia, after the Italian word for sticks. The idea was that while one stick would break, a bundle of sticks for be strong. They saw each stick as one element of society - the government, unions, the church, schools, etc. The rope to bind it with would be fascism.

"Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."

What our idiot friends on the left fail to understand is the rope can be anything at all. nationalism. populism. xenophobia. Universal health care. Welfare. religion. atheism. Anything that can be used to bind society more tightly together.

Communism does exactly the same thing - absorb everything into the state (no religion, no private business, etc.). Fascism can be best understood as communism lite.

Leftists obsess over the type of rope used, not realizing what you sue to bind the sticks is irrelevant. It is the act of binding, the act of subsuming all activities into branches of the state, that is fascism.

Posted by: Dean Wormer at August 22, 2017 06:28 PM (UgF8H)

449
Put another way - as Horace Walpole observed: "No country was ever saved
by good men, because good men will not go to the length that may be
necessary."---I have for a long time been a fan of the motivation poster showing Washington crossing the Potomac, with the caption

That's Nicolle Wallace, late of the 2008 McCain presidential campaign, she who personally arranged and booked Sarah Palin into the infamous "ambush interview" with Katie Couric.

Another great staff pick by Old Man Yells At Clouds.

Posted by: torquewrench at August 22, 2017 06:28 PM (ujwCG)

451
Actually Grant's wife didn't own slaves her family did and they didn't think to much of Ulysses
Posted by: Deploraqble Male Logic
------------

*slings liquor bottle at Deplorable*

Posted by: Useless S. Grant at August 22, 2017 06:28 PM (OdK9v)

452
206,"Now it's hysterical clickbait , and isn't simply trying to present the
full story, rather it is trying to outdo the Blaze or Alex Jones for
conspiracy crap in the WH."

I don't think Bannon has had enough time to influence the output there yet. They may be in some sort of competition to win praise from the new boss and writing things they think will please him though they may or may not.

455
@426: "The only group that votes republican in any meaningful numbers are white people...

Blacks - 90-99pct - Donk

Hispanics - 60-90pct - Donk

Asians/Indians/... - 70-90pct - Donk

This fantasy that all the GOP has to do is change this or that stance is ridiculous."

Even the "white" vote is pretty well split, once you account for sex and religion. Basically, the only group that is consistently republican are white Christian men, and even then, it's only about 65/35.

465
From what I remember of JG's "Liberal Fascism", Hitler's "national socialism" was a virtual knockoff of Stalin's communism with two exceptions: Hitler's disdain of all the Jews involved with the genesis of per se communism and Hitler's desire to focus his socialism on Germany with its super-race (per him) versus spreading socialism around to other countries and their lesser races (per him). Or, to bring it forward, the mortal enmity between the two guys on Star Trek ToS where they were each half black and half white down the middle but on opposite sides. Antifas want us all enslaved just like the Nazis would have wanted us enslaved, and both have the same ideas about how to handle the unenlightened (per them).

Posted by: OCBill at August 22, 2017 06:31 PM (df+Zi)

466Basically, the only group that is consistently republican are white Christian men

and married women with children.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at August 22, 2017 06:31 PM (LTHVh)

467
Oh. Boy. I just checked in over at Reason (yeah, I know) and there's an utterly hysterical piece about PDT taking up the cause of neo-Nazis and "elevating" them. It's so full of stupid you'd think it was an MSNBC piece.

476
467 Oh. Boy. I just checked in over at Reason (yeah, I know) and there's an utterly hysterical piece about PDT taking up the cause of neo-Nazis and "elevating" them. It's so full of stupid you'd think it was an MSNBC piece.
Posted by: Insomniac at August 22, 2017 06:32 PM (0mRoj)

479
478 Oh, there's a new Glock being announced on Saturday. Got an invite, I'm usually at the range anyway on Saturdays, so I'll be checking it out. Guessing it's the new 5th gen G17 and G19.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards at August 22, 2017 06:35 PM (xJa6I)

482Oh. Boy. I just checked in over at Reason (yeah, I know) and there's an utterly hysterical piece about PDT taking up the cause of neo-Nazis and "elevating" them. It's so full of stupid you'd think it was an MSNBC piece. Posted by: Insomniac at August 22, 2017 06:32 PM (0mRoj)

What will his Jewish grand children think of that when they grow up

Posted by: Deploraqble Male Logic at August 22, 2017 06:36 PM (lKyWE)

483
Remember folks, as we argue these points to our intellectual betters, to use single syllable words even they can understand.

488
@449: "I have for a long time been a fan of the motivation poster showing Washington crossing the Potomac, with the caption

America:We will kill you in your sleepOn Christmas"

Agreed, but that spirit seems very much missing today. The Founding Fathers recognized that: (1) at some point, they couldn't argue their way to independence, and stronger measures were required; and (2) when it came down to it, the important thing was to win/survive, not go down like gentlemen.

Posted by: FaCubeItches at August 22, 2017 06:37 PM (rznWS)

489
What will his Jewish grand children think of that when they grow up
Posted by: Deploraqble Male Logic at August 22, 2017 06:36 PM (lKyWE)

Hopefully that it's stupid, defamatory bullshit, which it is.

Posted by: Insomniac at August 22, 2017 06:37 PM (0mRoj)

490Remember folks, as we argue these points to our intellectual betters, to use single syllable words even they can understand.

497
Actually Grant's wife didn't own slaves her family did and they didn't think to much of Ulysses

Posted by: Deploraqble Male Logic at August 22, 2017 06:25 PM (lKyWE)

The Dent's were right to not think much of Grant because he was a drunk and corrupt as they come.

The National Parks Service, however, at least implies that the slaves were transferred to Julia Dent Grant at sometime because they quote someone saying how Grant always wanted to free his wife's slaves. https://www.nps.gov/ulsg/learn/historyculture/slaveryatwh.htm

504459 "It was called fascism - facia, after the Italian word for sticks. The idea was that while one stick would break, a bundle of sticks for be strong."

The same image can be found on many federal buildings in the USA.
Posted by: navybrat at August 22, 2017 06:30 PM (w7KSn)

The Mercury dime, minted from 1916-1945, had a Roman fasces on the reverse side. Its replacement, the Roosevelt dime from 1946 to the present, has a torch, but the torch still resembles a fasces.

The Mercury dime was in circulation before Mussolini took power in Italy, by the way.

Posted by: rickl at August 22, 2017 06:41 PM (sdi6R)

505
Interesting that venue for today's PDT event, Phoenix, recently became a lawless ("sanctuary") city , per reports of Judicial Watch (which seems, by itself, to have substituted for the entire US judicial and political structure, WRT gigantic legal matters, for years now).

As I've said: Sessions and Trump (and Kelly) are either keeping their actual full plans more secret than the D-Day landing location, or we're in trouble.

This stupid - and quite possibly illegal - ankle-biting crap of withholding grant monies from lawless jurisdictions was about 1% of a serious plan.

507The National Parks Service, however, at least implies that the slaves were transferred to Julia Dent Grant at sometime because they quote someone saying how Grant always wanted to free his wife's slaves.

Maybe during the time he was trying his hand at farming which he completely sucked at.

Posted by: Deploraqble Male Logic at August 22, 2017 06:41 PM (lKyWE)

508
9 So Trump is blind now....he looked at the sun....All the reporters are saying "I knew was stupid, but not that stupid".... (The Weather Channel)
Posted by: Colin at August 22, 2017 04:35 PM (

--------

Is this for real?

I was watching on-line as it happened, and the commentators said -"Trump is using the glasses". I mean, I personally watched him use the glasses.

515
George Foreman won a gold medal at the '68 Olympics.
When Foreman accepted the medal and standing with the silver and bronze winners he held up the American flag.

In 1968, big, mean, black, George Foreman held up the American flag as he accepted the gold medal in Mexico.

If you go to Bing images and put those words in you will see multiple images of him in boxing truncks, walking around a boxing ring carrying an American flag.
I could not seduce Bing to show me an image of him standing, accepting the medal, waving the flag.

524
Dershowitz makes "well, duh" observations - which of course sets him wildly apart from the only people he would consider voting for, publicly praising*, donating to, etc.

Who are pushing and whipping up this insanity.

So, more of a reminder of how degraded things are, than anything else. Besides, I'd bet he'll be hitting the limits of his self-imposed leash any time now. Can't be too comfortable for him *not* being a fire-breathing racist authoritarian arsonist, like the entirety of his party.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 22, 2017 06:46 PM (mBYZv)

525I was wondering to myself if Ace skipped the gainzz post last week because he didn't want to hear any of us warn him off his radical fasting.

Trump glanced up before he put on the glasses. Our betters in the media made a big deal out of it.
Posted by: Cloyd Freud, Unemployed at August 22, 2017 06:43 PM (398bZ)
-----
Ty. That is what I witnessed too. I also saw that being done by tons of other people on news replays. Obviously Trump supporters. :-)

Washington wasn't the only guy out there leading troops, and even he knew he had to seek fights at times - Trenton being a prime example. Had he not attacked, and attacked successfully, his army might well have collapsed within a very short time.

554
I think Keanu's into 3-gun, probably somewhere up in the LA area. Not sure which ranges have those events.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 22, 2017 06:54 PM (mBYZv)

555
I was standing outside of the library across the street smoking when I noticed the swastika motif. I was taken a bit aback.

-
I had a nightmare in which I was running from werewolves and found sanctuary with some country folk at a square dance. Then I noticed that the girls' skirts were all embroidered in Swastika patterns.

578
NFL has a lesbian coach?? Usually I am all pumped up when preseason starts and this year..zilch..zero interest. I'll stick to college football; NFL is as good as dead to me thanks to their stupid political shenanigans.

583
That's what is so breathtaking about all this. "Stronger Together" is literally a Fascist slogan. These leftists have no self-awareness at all, or else they really like projection.

Posted by: rickl at August 22, 2017 07:00 PM (sdi6R)
---
Or they like gaslighting us. I really sometimes wonder if they actually have a value in trying to get people into a state of cognitive dissonance. Meanwhile actually winking to their opposition--and feeling O so clever.

Posted by: Axeman at August 22, 2017 07:10 PM (2mC6G)

584
I guess there may be a few white supremacists still willing to march if given a spotlight, or others willing to pretend for a $25/hr and a free Nazi flag. Those are extreme fringe/deranged.

It is not about a belief in supremacy based on skin color, it is about the tribe, and that has mostly been a good thing.

Most of history is full of people that would prefer their own tribe, even fight and die for their tribe. (not talking about Cleveland Indians versus the Yankees, though even sports team uber fans will fight each other harder than many of these fake Nazi versus Antifa "look at me I'm a commie" punks)

Mandela the greater race healer went back to S Africa to sing with his commie pal about killing off the Boers, and his very tribal wife Winnie had been torturing enemy tribes the whole time he was an American hero in prison. That fake sign language guy for Obama was a perfect icon for how fake that whole narrative was.

Whites used the Irish on work for which they didn't want to risk their slaves. The aristocracy has always used their slaves for wars of their own ego, to protect their crown. They didn't think their peasants were above being used as cannon fodder just because they were white. They were equal opportunity abusive overlords.

That would go for the blacks that sold their fellow blacks into slavery as well. Peoples want their tribe to win, because then THEY win. For most of history that meant they, as basically owned serfs of the king/pope/lord ... got to continue living. Life was hard work as a serf/slave whatever.

Potato famine ... slaves were eating, Irish were not owned, not fed ... sorry left to die, and die they did. The context of old world slavery ... Joseph in Egypt ... a slave, well cared for ... advanced. Those he helped conquer died by the score.

History has harsh realities we cannot comprehend. Oppression is "I don't have high speed internet, and my 40" flat screen doesn't get the premium channels." Good Grief.

591
36
With my background and education I can't help but look at our country today but through a mental health filter. Never before in our history have we had such a huge percentage of the population taking anti-depressants, never before such an 'epidemic' of autism/Asperger Syndrome youth entering college, never before an opioid crisis of such proportions killing so many every day.

We're in the middle of a devolution revolution(tm) and people calling for 'smaller limited' government aren't the lightning rod driving these people into their fear and dementia.

Was gonna say tha some Bible scholars group all of that under Sorcery, as in the Greek word for it., Pharmakeia.

But my phone made me not say it until now.

Interesting tangent, if you'd like to pursue it.

Posted by: Denny Crane! at August 22, 2017 08:34 PM (4bjXi)

593
Many see that global warming/ climate change (AGW) is a manufactured lie that is used to gain power over people's lives. Many people can see that data has been falsified in order to advance a false narrative. AGW has been called the "greatest lie ever." But, I know another lie that is a much, much bigger lie than AGW: Darwinian Evolution. Before you roll your eyes (like many leftists roll theirs, and call us science deniers when we question their AGW religion), think about this: have you read any books that disagree with DE? Books that have disproved this so-called theory? Have you thoroughly studied the issue? I rarely comment here and would love to debate the issue, but I would rather encourage people to find out for themselves by reading the works of actual scientists who have written about the issue. Just give it a try and decide for yourself, instead of doing as leftists do and react by biting my head off for questioning the all-powerful religion of DE. I'll recommend some books below, but I want to add a couple of thoughts of my own first, a recap of my perspective after reading many books on the topic, as well as from being a Christian.

1. I think the books I've read absolutely destroy the idea of DE and many times I've wondered. "How can anyone who has read this still cling to DE?" I think the answer is: a. It's their religion. b. Take away DE, and one has to ask, "how did the creation of life begin?" (yes, I know, Darwin did not propose to answer how the first living organism came about...but DE actual does suggest answers to this question). I believe the answer about why educated people who have read irrefutable information that disproves DE still clings to DE can be found in the following verses from scripture:- And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

(So, in other words, giving up DE is the same as giving up their own idea of becoming as god, of being their own god, and therefore by giving this up one has to acknowledge the true God and bow before Him).

2. This AoS comment thread is about Nazis, Communists and Progressives. What about how DE informed, influenced and advanced these ideologies and continues to do so? ( An example is how the death camps in Poland and elsewhere were just one method of the State propelling the concept of survival of the fittest along its merry way by eliminating the "riffraff" so that the perfect man and society could be realized).

Here are just three books I recommend. Before you dispute anything, just read them and decide for yourself.

There are many, many others. There have been no sensitive or logical responses to these books, even from the acclaimed Richard Dawkins (in fact Meyers and others have scientifically destroyed Dawkins' ramblings).

Posted by: Andy in FL at August 22, 2017 08:35 PM (eNiTk)

594
The bundle of sticks thing originated with the Romans so it shows up lots of places.

Still and all, the point of communism and fascism are identical. Identical to the kings of old - tyranny, control, elites, classes, silly rules, silly dress, silly virtue signaling. Ever notice - the Dems slobber all over democratic politicians, or royalty whenever possible. Or they make their own royalty out of Hollywood stars. They worship repulsive people like people did repulsive emperors.

None of this is "new". In fact, nothing fascists and communists want is ever "new". They want a king daddy to tell them what to do. They want to put their boot to your face, forever. They want to be a slave or a tyrant - and they don't care which. They want to accomplish nothing and get everything.

Oligarchs and business men support these clowns because they believe THEY are better. They believe in the enlightened future, they will be holding the clipboards as we march to the ovens.

Our system of government has been an aberration. They are trying to get us to revert back to the norm. Maybe it is inevitable. I dunno.